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Ted Cruz makes personal link to military sexual assault reform
Houston Chronicle ^ | June 16, 2015 | Jennifer Reiley

Posted on 06/17/2015 9:28:30 AM PDT by SoConPubbie

For Texas Republican Ted Cruz, it got personal Tuesday when he joined a bipartisan group of senators trying to reform the way the military prosecutes sexual assault within its ranks.

"I have two little girls who are seven and four," Cruz said during a Capitol Hill press conference Tuesday. "As I've approached this issue, I've thought about when my daughters come of age, if they choose to step up and serve the country, what rules should be in place to protect my daughters from sexual assault?"

Cruz supported an amendment that would establish military prosecutors to investigate allegations of assault, taking the cases out of the ordinary military chain of command. The Pentagon has opposed the measure sponsored New York Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand. It failed to gain the 60 votes it needed to pass, but backers vowed to press on.

"This is a common sense reform that makes the prosecuting decisions be made by a professional military prosecutor," Cruz said. "Leaves it in the military, but simply leaves it with a prosecutor rather than the immediate commanding officer who many times may face a conflict of interest."

(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: cruz; tedcruz
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To: xzins; cripplecreek
Exactly the opposite. The immediate command is respected for honesty, integrity, and attention to detail.

Even after 8 years of Obama being CIC and thinning the ranks of leadership?
21 posted on 06/17/2015 9:44:32 AM PDT by SoConPubbie (Mitt and Obama: They're the same poison, just a different potency)
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To: TNMOUTH
The military turning a blind eye to things like this has been well documented

Who had the truth about Beau Bergdahl: the local troops and command OR the higher ups?

22 posted on 06/17/2015 9:46:20 AM PDT by xzins (Retired Army Chaplain and Proud of It! Pray for their victory or quit saying you support our troops)
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To: TNMOUTH

I’d bet my house that the number of innocent punished are greater than the number of guilty unpunished. Best thing a man can do is deny the sex ever even took place. If they can’t prove that there is no case. Otherwise, you find yourself on that slippery slope of defining consent, which the feminists are bringing closer and closer to defining as a fully executed contract between two parties.


23 posted on 06/17/2015 9:46:44 AM PDT by wolfman23601
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To: SoConPubbie

I’d take the integrity of a company commander or a battalion commander over a chairman of the joint chiefs any day of the week and twice on Sundayss.


24 posted on 06/17/2015 9:47:59 AM PDT by xzins (Retired Army Chaplain and Proud of It! Pray for their victory or quit saying you support our troops)
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To: xzins

Do the lawyers not interrogate the guys whose boots are on the scene?


25 posted on 06/17/2015 9:48:05 AM PDT by wolfman23601
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To: SoConPubbie

I was never in the military but some things work the same way.

When I was a factory foreman, and crap always found its way to me because I was immediately responsible. It was always better for me that it rise to my level than find its way to the top and come rolling downhill.

Obviously I never dealt with anything as serious as rape but I did “fix” problems so my superiors didn’t have to know about them.


26 posted on 06/17/2015 9:50:04 AM PDT by cripplecreek (Sad fact, most people just want a candidate to tell them what they want to hear)
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To: xzins

Exactly. Those who have served know an officer is appointed to actually interview/investigate the matter. Yes, I was an article 32 officer in late 69 as we had an SF SFC drop his death from about 100 feet during rappelling training from a chopper at Bragg. I am fairly sure the doughnut ring was not rigged right, but; I could not prove anything. I just forwarded facts. The military justice system whether it is drugs or murder is as good as civilian.


27 posted on 06/17/2015 9:51:16 AM PDT by Lumper20 ( clown in Chief has own Gov employees Gestapo)
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To: TNMOUTH

Back in the old military this would not be necessary but now that we allow any gender (male, female, male in a female body, female in a male body) maybe things are just so confusing a professional on gender issues is needed. Kinda like the old soviet army where a professional political officer was required to keep the polictics straight. We certainly are starting to resemble the old USSR.


28 posted on 06/17/2015 9:52:39 AM PDT by jpsb (Believe nothing until it has been officially denied)
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To: jpsb

Yep, what they have done to the military is a travesty


29 posted on 06/17/2015 10:03:27 AM PDT by TNMOUTH
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To: jpsb

Abu Ghraib comes to mind.


30 posted on 06/17/2015 10:06:06 AM PDT by cripplecreek (Sad fact, most people just want a candidate to tell them what they want to hear)
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To: SoConPubbie
"I have two little girls who are seven and four," Cruz said during a Capitol Hill press conference Tuesday. "As I've approached this issue, I've thought about when my daughters come of age, if they choose to step up and serve the country, what rules should be in place to protect my daughters from sexual assault?"

We don't want his daughters, or other females serving, get them out.

31 posted on 06/17/2015 10:07:38 AM PDT by ansel12
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To: xzins
If they'd just gone with the testimony of the troops at Haditha, instead of going with reporters, lawyers, politicians and politicized generals, Haditha would have been dropped.

Agreed, and ignoring the despicable John Murtha would have been a good start.

32 posted on 06/17/2015 10:08:51 AM PDT by smoothsailing
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To: SoConPubbie

Bingo indeed!

Who is in a better position to quickly get the unbiased evidence?
A commander who is dependent on good reviews for promotion or a trained legal officer whose only consideration is determining the truth and prosecuting any guilty parties?

The legal officer would have better knowledge of the military justice system and could resolve cases quicker and more efficiently.


33 posted on 06/17/2015 10:23:21 AM PDT by oldvirginian (TED CRUZ because the Republic needs a Constitutiomalist at the big desk)
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To: SoConPubbie

This will surely be of value, but does not address the root causes.


34 posted on 06/17/2015 10:30:11 AM PDT by Paulie (America without Christianity is like a Chemistry book without the periodic table.)
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To: SoConPubbie

Spoken like a true bleeding heart liberal.


35 posted on 06/17/2015 10:40:42 AM PDT by P-Marlowe (Saying that ISIL is not Islamic is like saying Obama is not an Idiot.)
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To: P-Marlowe
Spoken like a true bleeding heart liberal.

No, spoken like someone who understands the selfishness of human behavior. That we, as humans, will tend to our self-interests, naturally, more than anything else.

So, if something will reflect badly on me, and I have complete control over the situation, it makes it easier to protect my position over doing the right thing.
36 posted on 06/17/2015 10:43:24 AM PDT by SoConPubbie (Mitt and Obama: They're the same poison, just a different potency)
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To: SoConPubbie; xzins; wolfman23601; Girlene; smoothsailing; 4woodenboats; jazusamo
"I have two little girls who are seven and four," Cruz said during a Capitol Hill press conference Tuesday. "As I've approached this issue, I've thought about when my daughters come of age, if they choose to step up and serve the country, what rules should be in place to protect my daughters from sexual assault?"

Liberals always personalize national issues. By inserting his family into an issue that he really knows nothing about in order to justify a position that according to all the Military Freepers on the forum is a wrongheaded decision, he has engaged in a typical liberal fallacy of trying to tug at the heartstrings of his listeners rather than convince them using facts and logic.

So in that way, Cruz has taken the bleeding heart liberal approach to this issue.

If it was Jeb Bush who said the same thing you would be ridiculing him.

37 posted on 06/17/2015 10:49:01 AM PDT by P-Marlowe (Saying that ISIL is not Islamic is like saying Obama is not an Idiot.)
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To: P-Marlowe; SoConPubbie; xzins; wolfman23601; Girlene; smoothsailing; 4woodenboats; jazusamo
"As I've approached this issue, I've thought about when my daughters come of age, if they choose to step up and serve the country, what rules should be in place to protect my daughters from sexual assault?"

How about Kung Fu and Concealed Carry?

38 posted on 06/17/2015 10:52:03 AM PDT by P-Marlowe (Saying that ISIL is not Islamic is like saying Obama is not an Idiot.)
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To: xzins

That doesn’t mean he can’t make a rational decision based on looking at the outcomes of the trials. His teachers have said he’s a brilliant debater.


39 posted on 06/17/2015 10:54:47 AM PDT by wastedyears (Knights of Sidonia)
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To: xzins

And it would be even better if the questions came from a trained investigator.


40 posted on 06/17/2015 11:11:37 AM PDT by Gamecock (Why do bad things happen to good people? That only happened once, and He volunteered. R.C. Sproul)
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